Bonjour, mes amis! Lol! Yes, I am alive! But sadly, I have writers' block on the rest of my many, many stories and when I have writers' block I start new stories. Very, very bad habit. Never get into it. This story will take place a couple of weeks before the enchantment begins. Oh, and I found out that during the ten year time period of the enchantment, the servants in the castle and the Beast do not age. So basically, their lives were literally put on hold for ten years. Imagine that! Also, this story is based more on the Broadway play rather than the Disney movie.

I have XxMeggi-is-MisguidedxX to thank for this story! I probably would still be sitting on my laptop right now typing out character descriptions, waiting for an idea to come along if it weren't for her! She helped me with my ideas so this story is dedicated to her!

Disclaimer: Sadly, I do not own Beauty and the Beast, Lumiere, Babette or any other characters in this story. But hopefully I will someday be playing Babette on Broadway! If I'm lucky and dedicated enough!

All Is Fair In Love and War

Chapter One: Morning Glory

Lundi, Décembre, 4th 1732

"Babette! Get up! It's 7:10 already! You were supposed to be downstairs eating breakfast five minutes ago!"

Babette rolled around in her bed and looked at the door. Silently, she cursed the fact that Cogsworth was head of household and had the right to wake people up however he wanted. Even if it meant dragging her down the stairs with him. Slowly, she pulled herself out of bed. As she did so, she heard another loud knock, or rather bang, on the door.

"Mon dieu! I am up! Have some patience, Cogsworth!" she yelled back at the door. "I swear if you were to be anything at all besides a man, it would be a clock!"

She heard a heavy sigh come from the other side of the door as she got into her maids outfit. "You sound like Lumière!" he commanded. "Just hurry up!"

Five minutes later, after quickly throwing her dark hair into a messy bun and putting her maids cap on, Babette was downstairs in the kitchen eating breakfast with the rest of the servants.

"Ah, there you are, dearie," Babette heard a soft British voice say as she sat down at the table. She turned and saw Mrs. Potts at the counter, putting fresh baguettes on a plate. "I was wondering if Cogsworth would get you out of bed any time soon. I know he hasn't succeeded with dragging Lumière out of bed yet," she added, placing a plate of food in front of Babette.

Babette rolled her eyes as she picked up her fork. "Mon dieu! You would think that he would drag you down the stairs with him if you were five minutes late!" she hissed dramatically.

Laughing at the young maid's melodramatic response, Mrs. Potts turned back to her cooking. Just as she turned to say something else to Babette, an angry, red faced Cogsworth came through the door, dragging Lumiere behind him. He sat Lumiere down the chair next to Babette and then took a deep breath to calm himself before he started to talk.

"Now," he started anger evident in the stout man's voice. "You will sit here and eat breakfast and after that you will do your duty and work here, in the kitchen. You will not, under any circumstances, run around being your incompetent, lazy self, flirting with every girl on the face of the earth that passes you!" With that said, Cogsworth turned and angrily strode from the kitchen, leaving Babette and Mrs. Potts staring after him, puzzled.

As Mrs. Potts walked around the counter to place a plate of food in front of Lumiere, Babette turned and looked at him questioningly. "What was that about?"

Lumiere turned and looked at her. He still looked half asleep and it seemed like he had no more than two seconds to get dressed and ready for the day. "I expressed an opinion!" he said, frustrated.

Babette smiled sympathetically. "What opinion did you express though, ma chérie?" she whispered.

Lumière gave her a guilty look. "I may have started about him nagging on me all the time, him calling me lazy, the way he wakes us up . . . and when I'm with you," he whispered guiltily.

Babette rolled her eyes, looked back at Lumière and then started laughing. Lumière looked at her, flustered and unsure what to think of her sudden outburst of laughter. "Why are you laughing! This isn't funny! He dragged me down the stairs by my ear!" By the end of his little speech, Babette was only laughing harder. "Mon dieu," he muttered to himself.

"I am not laughing at you, mon cher," she gasped between giggles. "It's just; Cogsworth woke me up the exact same way! Only he sat there pounding on my door for five minutes! I actually thought about him dragging someone down the stairs attempting to wake them up. Here you are!"

Lumière glared at her. "I am so glad you take pleasure in my pain, mon doux," he muttered, unimpressed.

Babette stopped laughing and looked at him. "Je t'aime, mon amour," she whispered in his ear, batting her eyelashes.

"Non, not right now. I do not love you right now," he teased. "You laughed at me getting dragged down the stairs. It's your fault! You thought it and it happened."

Again, Babette batted her eyelashes but this time she snuggled up to him and rested her head on his shoulder. "You love me," she stated matter-of-factly.

Lumière smiled at her sweet display of affection and kissed the top of her head. "Oui, ma chérie, I do," he whispered.

Later that day, after breakfast had finished and everyone was attending to their duties, Babette was cleaning the sitting room, talking with Angélique, the castle`s decorator.

"So, mon ami, I heard Cogsworth yelling at you to get up this morning," Angélique started. "And then get frustrated and yell at you again. What did you do?"

Babette turned away from dusting the mantel and looked at her friend. "Nothing," she lied, turning around before her friend could see her facial expression. No response came, there was only silence. Cautiously, she turned and noticed Angélique giving her a 'you didn't do nothing, so tell me now' look. "Fine. I may have told him that if he were to be anything besides a man, he would be a clock," she added. "And then he told me I sounded like Lumière."

Angélique let out a musical laugh that sounded like the chime of bells. "Been around Monsieur Lumière too much lately, have we? Were you with him last night? Is that why you wouldn't get out of bed?" she laughed putting a mocking tone on monsieur.

Slamming her feather duster down on the mantel, Babette turned and glared at Angélique. "I was not! We took a walk in the garden last night and that is it," she reassured her friend.

Angélique nodded and smiled. "And how was that little date?" she pressed.

Finally giving in, Babette sighed and sat down next to Angélique. "It was romantic. Like all of our nights together," she whispered smiling at the memory of their romantic walk through the snow covered garden.

Angélique sighed at her own memories. "I remember when I used to have nights like those with him," she sighed. "Then you came along and he fell head over heels in love."

Babette looked apologetically at her friend. "I am sorry," she apologized.

"No need to apologize!" Angélique laughed. "I knew he wasn't in love with me! I wasn't in love with him! We were never going to be anything more than friends." She smiled at her friend and placed a hand on hers. "Now you on the other hand, I can see you getting married to him someday and finally taming him!"

Babette laughed at her friend's humour as they walked out of the clean sitting room and moved on.

As they approached the hallway of the East Wing, Babette heard something coming from behind the curtains. She stopped walking and shushed her talkative friend. Instantly, Angélique stopped talking and looked at her questioningly. "What is it?" she whispered.

"Shhh!" Babette shushed. "Listen!"

Angélique stopped and listened for a while and then gasped. "There is someone behind the curtains!" she whispered hoarsely so that only Babette could hear. Babette nodded silently. "Well . . . aren`t you going to see who it is?" an eager Angélique added.

Babette shook her head vigorously, frightened at who she thought she would find behind the curtains.

Angélique sighed. "Fine. I'll do it then," she looked at her friend who nodded in approval. Quickly but quietly, she approached the curtains. She looked at Babette and mouthed 'one, two, three' to her and quickly pulled back the curtains.

Both Babette and Angélique gasped at what they saw, as did the two people behind the curtains.

Yes I am leaving you with a cliffhanger. I will try to update as fast as possible but I can`t guarantee anything. I have six Rotary Music Festival events to perform this week. I promise that I will try this weekend.

Please review!

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